Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-17

Il
manned upon the land
The distinguished English poet, Mat
thew Arnold, has written touching poem
on this subject, in which he fancies the
norman and his children the following
| night sadly calling on the wife and
| mother, giving her the name of Margaret,
instead of Agnete as in the Danish song.
| quote the last stanzas of Mr.. Arnold's
poem:
Call her once more before We go!
| Call once yet
In voice that she viii know:
" Margaret Margaret
| Childrens voices should be dear
! (Call once more , to mothers ear;
| Chlldrens voices, wild with pain
Surely she will come again
| Call her once more. and come away
| This way, this way.
! Mother dear we cannot stay,
Inc white horses foam and fret
Margaret Margaret p
Come, dear children come away down,
! Call no more.
One last look at the white-walrd town,
And the little gray church on the windy shore
! Then come down.
She Will not come though you call all day
| Come away come away!
Come away away children!
Come children come down
| The hoarse wind blows colder,
| Lights shine in the town.
She will start from her slumber
| When gusts shake the door;
she VIII hear the winds bowling,
! VIII hear the waves roar.
| We shall see while above US
| The waves roar and whirl,
A ceiling of amber
! A pavement of pearl.
| Singing; " Here came mortal,
! But fsithless was she,
And alone dwell forever
! The king of the sea-"
But the end is not yet. Agnete had
abandoned her race, and thus severed her
connection with the saving divine powers,
and therefore the penalty must be paid
And 1t came; for the song tells us further
that she soon felt detected and went to the
church. But when she entered into the
holy place all the pictures of the saints
turned their backs toward her; when she
advanced to the altar it turned its back
toward her. Everything turned from her.
and when she would take the Lords sup
per the wine in the chalice appeared to her
as if she were looking down in the depths
of the sea. In utter despair she left the
church and went down to the seashore
There she tainted and fell, and then the
waves took her body and brought it down
! to the bottom of the sea. But she had
been faithless to the sea also, and she
could neither remain there. So the sea
threw her out upon the shore, and then
the corpse was found and buried in the
sand, while a large stone was laid upon
her grave. Every morning this is wet,
and the song tells US that this comes from
the tears of her disconsolate husband and
children
So much about the songs themselves,
and as to their melodies they are worthy
of them; and, generally speaking, the
Danish folk melodies can in sweetness,
powerfulness and popularity of character
be classed among the best folk melodies of
any nation.
Folk melodies in general have pecu-
liar beauty and attractiveness to the
thorough student of music. "They are"
says the distinguished German author,
| Ihibaut, in his work on the purity of
music, " innocent as child, and still they
have the power, like a David's harp, to
dispell the phantoms of sorrow from the
| troubled brain" But to understand and
appreciate these old, often quaint tunes,
the musical taste must not have become
depraved by that kind of so-called music,
the composers of which seem to have no
more ideas and thoughts when they COM
pose than the parrots have when they utter
sounds like human words, and whose only
object in their compositions seems to have
been this, that they wished to show how
the hapless fingers can be trained, or mall
treated by hurrying up and down the in
strument, so that at least great noise can
be effected.
1t is, however, pleasant fact that in the
modern time folk melodies become more
and more known and appreciated Almost,
if not every, nation in Europe has now
collections of its folk melodies in print,
and accessible to everyone, and they are
not only used by the connoisseurs, but also
by distinguished composers. Thus, Spohr
and Thalberg in Germany, Boieldieu in
France, Grieg and Ole Bull in Norway,
Kuhlau, Weyse, Hamerick and Rung in
Denmark, besides many others, have taken
folk melodies into their compositions. Of
these, | only call the attention to the fact
that Flotow has used that beautiful Irish
| folk melody, "The Last Rose of Summer"
not less than three times in his opera
Martha" And | am confident that the
time is coming when these old relics will
be generally treasured, not only by the
high PRIESTS in the temples of music, but
also by everyone whose heart is still open
for artless, innocent and natural feelings.
H. c. JEssEN, NJ. D.
Sacramento December, 1887.
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